The third largest company in revenue in Bulgaria - Bulgaria based Aurubis, in the copper industry, plans to invest 260 million leva in its business in the country over the next four years. These funds will be used to modernize the infrastructure at the company's plant in Pirdop. This is what the CEO Tim Kurth said in an interview with "24 Hours".

"We want to modernize the plant's entire infrastructure in a few steps - pipelines, drainage systems, communications, some buildings will be completely renovated," he said, adding that over the last two decades, 1.2 billion leva have been invested in the production base.

"We have succeeded in upgrading our production facilities to the highest level so as not to obstruct the maintenance of a certain production rate, we have achieved capacity upgrading and we have to prove that we are able to keep it in the long term," Kurth added.

The head of Aurubis also points out that in partnership with Navibulgar, the company invested indirectly EUR 23 million in the port of Burgas. The funds were used to build two terminals for unloading and storing copper concentrates and sulfuric acid.

Regarding the company's contribution to the country's economy, Tim Kurth explains: "We are responsible for 9% of exports and 6% of Bulgaria's imports in 2017". According to him, a quarter of the raw material from the Aurubis plant is delivered to companies in Bulgaria.

Among the important markets for the company are Turkey, Italy, Germany and Belgium. The manufacturer also exports to Serbia and Morocco as well as to China. According to Coface data, Aurubis is third in revenue for 2017 on the Bulgarian market with EUR 2,566 billion realized. On an annual basis, the company accounted for more than 55% of its revenue, reaching € 1,651 billion in 2016. Before them were only Bulgarian Energy Holding and Lukoil Neftochim Burgas with a turnover of respectively EUR 3,105 billion and EUR 2,299 billion last year.